Holy Toledo!!

I just have to marvel at the mere fact that we are all still alive after the last 2 months!  Whew!  I will try to keep this from depressing you, but my heavens!  This needed to be documented!

So, about 2 months ago I made a super-big-girl decision and willingly had my wisdom teeth removed {owie!}.  The 8-hour pain relief drug only lasted 45 minutes and somehow I missed the bit of instruction {a pretty important tid-bit of advice, it turned out!} to not remove the packing for at least an hour after leaving.  So, my Dad-in-law took me to get a chocolate shake... bad idea.  Anyhow the pain was pretty bad for the next few days, but I didn't think it was a dry socket cuz I had heard those were excruciating and I didn't think my pain was THAT bad {but I still thought I was a pretty big wuss}.  Turns out it WAS a dry socket, and I guess instead of being a big wuss I was actually pretty tough!  LOL  The gaping holes in my head are still healing {no gum for TWO WHOLE MONTHS!  I'm going crazy!}, but it's pretty amusing to freak Clint out with all the food that comes out of those holes.

Moving on... So, while I'm still recovering from all this, Maelee K decides to have a severe allergic reaction to some unidentifiable source.  We're talking purple hives all over her body and fingers and toes so swollen they started to turn green and look like little water balloons!  We put her on a steroid for a week and she was fine... for a month or so...  that's when the month-long bout of diarrhea started.

More on that in a minute.  Don't want to get ahead of myself!

Clint comes home a few weeks after the purple hives incident with a fever of 104.8, which lasted hours and hours.  Needless to say he got pretty loopy and delusional.  At one point while I was putting cold cloths all over his body {because he absolutely refused to take a cool bath}, he kept trying to pull the covers over himself because he was SO hot that the cool cloths almost sent him into convulsions he was shaking so bad.  I told him that it wouldn't do him any good to have cool cloths on if he just covered back up.  I finally had to just sit on the blankets to stop him.  He got all huffy and told me, "Quit baby-guarding!!"  WHOA!!  THAT one took me back about 15 years!  I teased him and he said, "well, that's what you are!  Big baby-guarder!"  Turns out he had a pretty nasty case of strep that kicked his tail for the next 3 days, and then passed on to his nurse... me.  Lovely, eh?

Luckily, neither of the girls came down with it, but I was supposed to take the girls on a road trip that weekend to go see Kiki {Maelee's birth mom} and get my comp fixed.  Nothing doing, that strep knocked me on my rear for a few days.  I ended up going down the next week to surprise Kiki for her birthday {totally awesome day!} and on that trip the girls started throwing up.  I'm STILL trying to get the smell out of the car.  Gross, I know!  Madi's only lasted for a day, but Maelee K continued throwing up for about 2 weeks.  She had NO interest in Pedialyte, and we were so worried about dehydration.  I snuck some into her bottles {like 2oz to 6oz water, plus formula} but it wasn't enough to make us feel better.

Then Clint caught the stomach bug.  Then I caught it.

Then I got really smart and took Maelee into an allergist.  Before she was even born, her birth family told us that a lot of them are lactose-intolerant and so she probably would be too.  She got super plugged up when ever she had normal formula, and it didn't improve when she was on soy unless we put a digestive enzyme in her bottle.  We've been doing this since she was a few weeks old {soy formula and digestive enzyme}, until a few months ago when we weaned her off the digestive aid.  TURNS OUT she's allergic to SOY {hence the purple hives and puffy fingers/toes} and the only way she had been digesting it was the enzyme we had been putting in her bottles.  Once that worked its way out of her system she couldn't handle the soy anymore.  The steroid helped, but when it wore off the diarrhea and vomiting started.  AND, she's NOT lactose-intolerant, her acidophilus is really low {that's a bacteria in your body that helps you digest dairy} and that's why she couldn't handle anything with milk products in it.  SO, she's off the soy formula {yay!} and on milk-based, plus a digestive enzyme again and an acidophilus supplement.  {Man alive, I totally feel like my mother!!!}  Don't laugh, it's the first time in her life that her poor little body has been working right so I'll do whatever I have to!  And luckily, we only have to supplement her until mid-July.  Then her body will be able to take care of itself.

So, for one week she was great and we were all healthy.  It didn't last.

A couple Saturdays ago her eardrum ruptured.  It was pretty gross.  We didn't even know she had an ear infection.  She wasn't showing any signs except a slight fever that came and went {and she's teething so I didn't worry}.  We put her on amoxicillin and a few days later... ANOTHER ALLERGIC REACTION!!  She broke out in hives all over her body again.  Evidently she's allergic to pennicillin and even though she's had it before without a reaction, now that she's had one she won't be able to have it again without benedryl to counter the allergy.  We got her switched to K-flex, but now she has a double ear infection {and is doing a LOT better this week!}.  Yeah, I know!!

You think it's over don't you... not quite.  I woke up Monday morning with strep, AGAIN.  Clint took the day off work to baby me and care for the girls so I could rest {which was nice cuz I could barely get out of bed}.  I had to take the pill antibiotic this time around {instead of that totally ouch shot in the rear}, and let me just say that I would take the shot over this slow recovery ANY day!  It's Wednesday and I still flinch when I swallow.

You know, it may not sound like it but I swear that we usually, USUALLY don't get sick very often!  LOL  If you actually read all of that... good job.  Thanks for letting me write it all down so I could laugh at us.  By next week we'll be healthy again and back to normal.  That's the hope at least!  :O)